TIM GRUNDMANN 1950 - 2015

Tuesday, December 15, 2015 ... a phone call from Tim's husband Rami Cohen. Tim passed
away last Thursday. Tim was 65 years old. So many of us are in shock and greatly saddened by this news. Too many superlatives swirl in my head in trying to write this paragraph so let me simply say
that from June 1976 to August 1982 many of us were extremely fortunate to work with and learn from this amazingly talented man at New Playwrights' Theatre. (a little history follows the photo
galleries below)

YOU MAY LISTEN to one of Tim’s last musical creations by going to these two videos on
YouTube - you'll hear & watch it played by a trio of very talented classical musicians. Part one is found at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zIGyxAq6Ic -- Part Two is found at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMmNt95RF3Q&feature=related

YOU MAY READ an obit for Tim in the NY TIMES and leave your own tribute by going to this site:

I wish I could take credit for it, but I can't. Fact of the matter is, it's all thanks
to Ken Bloom.

INSERT PICTURE: Ken & Tim in our offices circa
1979

In the summer of 1976 I was crazed ... trying to juggle what Granville needed for his
Bi-Centennial children's plays tour, with assisting a new theatre company with its first season over on the eastern shore of Maryland, while hosting Inner Visions Ensemble's production of Edward H.
Adam's MAMA OF THE YEAR, and planning for a summer musical production while helping with the sand-blasting of the interior of the building (why let Bobby, Billy & Kathleen have all the fun?)
while finding plays for the coming year and ... and ... trying to find money for the next month's rent on our wonderful building. So with all that going on, I got a phone call from Bloom. Bloom
telling me he had discovered a sketch comedy group with whom he wants to create a new musical revue that we can run as an 11:00 show ... a simple cabaret, no set, just a bunch of props -
Ken will direct and it'll cost us next to nothing (which was a damn good thing because that's about all we had in our checking accounting at that time.)

INSERT PICTURE: Tim in the NPT office around
1980

"They are real good at comic improv and this guy Grundmann is a great pianist and he
writes clever songs." Okay, maybe those weren't Bloom's exact words, but I remember that he was unusually enthusiastic about the talent he had discovered.

So, I figure, a simple late night comedy revue ... they have their own props and
costumes ... how hard could it be?

Well, it wasn't hard at all ... except for the fact that Ken had assumed they had hours
of songs and comic material when, in fact, they had about 20 minutes worth. But hey ... it was only the end of June. There's all of July to put together a show to open in August ... and they
did.

INSERT PICTURE: SIROCCO PROMO
HANDBILL

Eventually, MAMA OF THE YEAR closed as scheduled, the musical got canceled due to our
lack of funds (sorry John & Nikki,) the comedy revue was given the 8:00 time slot and it was slated to open in August. Which it did ... on Friday the 13th ... to outrageously great newspaper
notices. The title of the show, I believe, was a nod to Sir Noel Coward.

SIROCCO

The hot new musical revue

Music & lyrics by Tim Grundmann

comedy sketches by Tim Grundmann & Ken Bloom - improvisations by the
company

Understudies for the West End Theatre run – Jim Humphrey and Bari
Biern

Production Stage Managers: Dawn Leland / Tom Welsh

Set by Russell Metheny – Lighting by William Turnbull, Jr. – Costumes by Mary Kay
McGregor

December 29, 1976 – March 5, 1977 [32 performance]

March 29 – May 1, 1977 [35 performances at The West End Theatre]

*

*PHOTOS BELOW (by Richard L. Haight) Are from the
West End Theatre Extended Run of "BRIDE"*

SIDEBAR: Even before BRIDE closed, Ken
and I talked with Tim ... "What do you want to do next?" Ken suggested Tim tackle a book musical. We scheduled it to open in December ... Tim would do the book, music and lyrics, Ken would direct and
Russell would do the scenery ... all be needed was a script. But hey, it was March ... weeks to go before we would open December 14th, right?ox >>